Report: Obama admin has issued threats against the Benghazi whistleblowers?

posted at 8:41 pm on April 29, 2013 by Erika Johnsen

For months now, Republican lawmakers have been wondering about the status of the survivors of last September’s terrorist attack in Benghazi that resulted in the death of four Americans, and why it is that Congress has not been afforded more access to them. In March, Sen. Lindsey Graham suggested that the Obama administration was engaged in specifically blocking access to these witnesses, and that the witnesses had even been told to “keep quiet” — a notion that the administration blithely dismissed and Democrats once more pooh-poohed as the mere partisan pish-tosh of those petty Republicans.

The latest update from Fox News, however, reports that at least four career officials from the State Department and CIA are lawyering up as they prepare to provide “sensitive” information about the Benghazi attack to Congress, and that Obama administration officials have served some of these witnesses with not-so-subtle hints about the consequences of coming forward: Nice career you’ve got there. Shame if anything were to happen to it.

Victoria Toensing, a former Justice Department official and Republican counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee, is now representing one of the State Department employees. She told Fox News her client and some of the others, who consider themselves whistle-blowers, have been threatened by unnamed Obama administration officials.

“I’m not talking generally, I’m talking specifically about Benghazi – that people have been threatened,” Toensing said in an interview Monday. “And not just the State Department. People have been threatened at the CIA.” …

“It’s frightening, and they’re doing some very despicable threats to people,” she said. “Not ‘we’re going to kill you,’ or not ‘we’re going to prosecute you tomorrow,’ but they’re taking career people and making them well aware that their careers will be over [if they cooperate with congressional investigators].” …

Rep. Darrell Issa, the Republican from California who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, wrote to Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday to complain that the department has not provided a process by which attorneys like Toensing can receive the security clearances necessary for them to review classified documents and other key evidence.

Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy said on Sunday that more Benghazi hearings are coming in short order — and that he thinks they’re likely showcase some “explosive” revelations (if, that is, the media should condescend to take notice in any other capacity than the ever-dismissive, “My, these Republicans are certainly determined to discredit Hillary Clinton!”):

“There are more Benghazi hearings coming; I think they’re going to be explosive,” Mr. Gowdy, a South Carolina Republican who is a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, told Fox’s Uma Pemmaraju.

Mr. Gowdy wasn’t able to give out too many details, but he hinted that the public for the first time might hear from witnesses to the terror attack that left four Americans dead. …

Mr. Gowdy added that in a trial, “direct evidence, direct testimony by eyewitnesses is always the most compelling.”

“Trust me when I tell you you will want to follow the hearings that are coming up,” he reiterated.

Breaking on Hot Air

Blowback

Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.

Obama never has figured out that if you turn back the tides in one place, you end up with a tsunami somewhere else.

These folks are risking their jobs, livelihoods. A directive from the DCI, DNI or SecState has the power of immediate termination of employment. If in exempted service (not regular civil service) as most Agency officers and a number of FSO’s are, that means before the day is out, you are gone, clean out your desk, if allowed, be escorted by security to your car or the closest Metro stop. Benefits? What benefits? Severance pay? What? Nope. Not a dime.

Can’t even talk to the oversight committees in closed session?

That sort of order did not originate on the 7th floor of State or the 7th floor over at CIA. It came from downtown…on Pennsylvania Avenue…1600, if I recall.

“I’m not talking generally, I’m talking specifically about Benghazi – that people have been threatened,” Toensing said in an interview Monday. “And not just the State Department. People have been threatened at the CIA.” …

This administration is not just incompetent and corrupt, it is downright criminal.

Obama is such a corrupt thug he makes Nixon look like a choir boy. Squandering billions of taxpayer dollars on the Pigford fraud to pay off vote hustlers in black neighborhoods, passing out guns and grenades to Mexican drug cartels, leaving dozens of diplomatic personnel in Benghazi to be raped and/or tortured and/or murdered by AQ terrorists . . . it just never stops. And no matter what he does, his lapdogs in the MSM continue to stand in line to lick his azz — during those rare moments when Obama can even make time for their fawning, in between his golf games, partying, and luxe, multi-million-dollar vacations.

Besides Obama’s reputation, let’s not forget that Bill OWES Hilary BIG TIME. Since she was Sec. of State during this horrible blunder, her reputation ala 2016 is on the line. Bill will do whatever it takes to protect her reputation.

According to my die hard Liberal Father, if you get upset over the fact that the MSM is nothing more than a propaganda arm of the Democrat party, it proves that you’re a fanatic with nothing better to do in your life than obsess over politics.

Do you know how many Senators voted to convict Clinton of perjury and obstruction of justice?

45 and 50.

If you couldn’t get Clinton convicted and removed, forget about getting 67 votes in the Senate where Democrats and too many Republicans approve of the job he is doing.

Short of slitting Michelle’s throat on national television, I cannot see the Democrats EVER voting to convict and remove the first black President. They love that 95% voting bloc too much to do something like that…and, as for the Democrats pulling a Goldwater-Scott-Rhodes and sending a delegation of ‘elders’ to tell Obama to resign as the Republicans did to Nixon, forget it.

Scooter Libby was sentenced to years in prison for making a false statement about something he did not even do but I have yet to see anybody pay any price for the high crimes this administration commits.

The last I read, Obama administration, Kerry, wasn’t blocking the whistle blowers from having attorneys. The reports indicate that the attorneys for the whistle blowers have been unable to get classified clearance to see the evidence and other information surrounding Benghazi. Issa has posted a letter to Kerry et al demanding that these attorneys be given clearance and access to the information.

It’d be nice to know the public’s tolerance for his corruption if the media ever reported the news. This isn’t semen on a blue dress. This is a president who left people to die because he couldn’t take the political risk of having to admit the unpreparedness of another planned Islamic 9/11 attack (while in the middle of dancing on bin ladens grave) when he could just lie and say it was a spontaneous movie demonstration instead.

If many people in government aren’t impeached and jailed over this, than the world is over. It’s like we have the entire mafia running the country. Citizens will have to take matters into their own hands.

All the whistle blowers will indeed have their employment terminated, some may face a federal conviction…not for being a whistle blower…no, that’d be too blatant…even for this Administration. No. They’ll be charged under Title 18, US Code, Chapter 37, Subsection 798…or similar.

All nice and neat and legal like…with Eric Holder honchoing the entire process.

After all, their lawyers have yet to be granted security clearances by the Executive Branch.

The GOP is a joke. The only difference between them and the Dems is that the GOP is all bark and no bite. They just want to keep their personal little fiefdoms intact.

If there is a wild card here, it would have to be someone in the CIA who has a pair and damn the torpedoes. Unfortunately it seems that all too often anymore that those who have real grit end up like the two Seals in Benghazi – hung out to dry.

And Shrillery’s tenure at State was supposed to be nothing more than a nice little no-drama finishing school for unqualified presidential candidates. They just couldn’t hide her incompetence for four straight years. Almost — but not quite. She was so close…so close…and then…BOOM!

Scooter Libby was sentenced to years in prison for making a false statement about something he did not even do but I have yet to see anybody pay any price for the high crimes this administration commits.

NeoKong on April 29, 2013 at 9:10 PM

I am yet to see Cheney in jail for lying this country into an endless war so what is your point?

On a happy note, I really think Zero is going to be the first preezy in US history to become less popular the longer he is out of office, as the knee-pad press lifts its moratorium on writing the truth about his presidency, and more and more journalists decide to make their bones investigating the unprcedented level of corruption in his regime. The pendulum always swings back, and it is going to be swinging so far away from this guy and his corrupt inner circle that they’ll be worrying about prison for years after he’s left office.

Drudge is reporting that one of the big revelations is that the day after one of our compounds was overrun by terrorists which resulted in the deaths of 4 Americans, 2 of them being SEAL’s and a third the actual ambassador, that Bark went to Vegas for a fundraiser.

It is FAR better to suck the thang of the President that has prosecuted more whistle-blowers than ALL American Presidents before him…COMBINED. Quite an accomplishment for an alleged champion of the underdog and civil rights leader.

You ObamaFirsters are truly disgusting hypocrites. No wonder real civil libertarians on the Progressive side like Glenn Greenwald can’t f*cking stand you.

But wait… I hear that N. Korea needs to be invaded. Or.. or.. Syria really did cross that double secret probationary red line or maybe Obama will agree to slashing taxes and spending and ditching Obamacare… Honestly, I would be amazed if some other crisis de jour with flashing red and blue lights didn’t pop up to distract Americans from hearing the “truth” on what happened in Benghazi.

Man i so want Obama, Holder, HIllary all in jail..they all freaking deserve it for what they have done..the most criminal administration in history..far worse than Richard Nixon…This further proves it..clearly have something to hide and are trying their darndest to hide it

Zeifman is my favorite Democrat. Chief counsel to the House Judiciary Committee on the committee to impeach Nixon, he documents how Hillary (Clinton) then in a junior role in his group, presented to them arguments why Nixon was not entitled to the services of a lawyer in his impeachment

The new stories are as old as time

If all Democrats were like Ziefman, I would jump parties. He also, if I remember, represented Oliver North years later

These people need to be wearing orange jumpsuits. Every last one of them.
Wish we had a GOP Congress with some balls and integrity.

NeoKong on April 29, 2013 at 8:50 PM

You said it.

So get off the impeachment kick.
Thanks.

losarkos on April 30, 2013 at 3:06 AM

No, we should get louder and louder on it. Force Reid to face it, in front of the entire nation.

Zero is a criminal. He has committed several impeachable offenses, not least of which came the Wednesday after the Marathon bombing when he interceded for a Saudi National and probable terrorist against the interests of the United States.

I frankly wish these people would just stay silent. I think they are destroying their careers for nothing. Even if they come forward with testimony damaging to Obama, I expect the GOP to do nothing to either protect these people or to punish Obama. The GOP has made a lot of noise about F&F and Benghazi but has shown little interest in doing anything beyond that.

Their careers are over if they come forward. The libs the federal bureaucracy is infested with will make sure of that, one way or another. If they managae to keep some kind of government job the bureaucracy will make their daily work day a living hell. They should know that.

What they need to do is protect whatever retirement benefits they are due and start planning for a new career.

Their careers are over if they come forward. The libs the federal bureaucracy is infested with will make sure of that, one way or another.

What they need to do is protect whatever retirement benefits they are due and start planning for a new career.

farsighted on April 30, 2013 at 7:29 AM

That’s why whistleblower status is important. It provides some legal career protections. They are not coming forward until they are assured they have this status.

Victoria Toensing is on local talk radio right now. She’s speaking with a certainty that means she knows stuff from her client the administration doesn’t want to become public. All the more reason why full and open hearings are required no matter how much it annoys John “I’m not going to spend the next year talking about this” Kerry or the rat-eared coward.

And BTW, the way this stuff works, any hearings will extend well into next years mid-term elections. I hope the rat-eared coward and his party are ready for a Watergate-like coverup inserting itself in the middle of their campaigns.